Under Windows click "learn more" and then read under "Input Personalization".

I'm considering using a secondary computer (linux) for all of my personal internet activity and making my windows box purely game dev / gaming.

It's right there, thank you. It says it can be turned off, and that Cortana will not work after you do that. Considering I live in a Cortana-less country, it shouldn't be a problem if I ever migrate to Win10. However it's be best to see how they handle this.

I've stopped gaming on PC about 5 years ago and couldn't be happier. Consoles don't have this constant hardware upgrade cycle and you're free of Windows. In the long run I think I've actually saved a bunch of money; I used to buy high-end graphics cards easily worth two consoles and now I spend that money on more games :)

Took me a few weeks to completely replace my Windows workflow in OSX and Ubuntu but I'd say the broader perspective of knowing all three platforms when being a programmer is well worth the investment!

I'd have to say, Uncharted played a small role in this transition; I've been blown away by this series and they're not available for PC, so there :)

I personally like to mod my games, though, which is borderline-impossible on modern consoles. There are also quite a few games - like Kerbal Space Program - that aren't available for consoles and that I enjoy playing.

I personally just game on a Linux box (running Slackware, specifically). I don't get the best selection in the world, but most of the indie games seem to be paying attention to Linux/SteamOS, and said games tend to be the better ones anyway.

> "Consoles don't have this constant hardware upgrade cycle and you're free of Windows."

Do you own an Xbone? I hope not for your sake as Windows 10 is coming to that too.

(If I'm being pedantic, other consoles have used Windows in some way. I'm not sure about the Xbox 360 but IIRC the OS for the original Xbox was based on Windows 2000. The Dreamcast also had limited support for Windows CE, I don't think the main OS was based on it, but a few games used it).

I am using the setup you describe since about two years now. I mean, my Arch-Linux machine is bugging me off sometimes, especially when a update cracked something, and I have to downgrade again. But everytime I read news like that, I am glad to have it as my primary machine (where I know exactly what goes on under the hood)...